JOE MATHEWS: Turning prisons into warehouses | Opinion

On the way to this human warehouse, I had to navigate a different kind of warehouse, a road lined with large logistics facilities. Along Grant Line Road were huge Amazon warehouses, Home Depot and US Foods distribution centers, third-party logistics companies NFI and APL, and Federal Emergency Management Agency facilities. The largest warehouse still under construction near the prison appeared to be twice the size of all the other warehouses.

By the time the road veered to the right and the destination was visible, the 68-year-old prison appeared small.

This juxtaposition of old prisons and new logistics facilities is a change of guard. Just as the prophet of the Bible Isaiah foresaw a sword-blow for a military-civilian transformation for agricultural culture, the reality of California in the 21st century presents a new prophecy.

In mass imprisonment, in mass commerce.

Currently, two different trends that are being accelerated by the pandemic are working together. First, due to the rapid decline in California’s prison population (following court rulings, court reforms, and early release of prisoners to limit the spread of COVID), the state is considering closing the old prisons. . can do. Second, the rise of e-commerce has caused a surge of cheap land in Edge City and the construction of warehouses along the corridors of rural highways where many prisons have been built.

While driving to a California prison for possible closures in recent months, I often find myself struggling to find prisons in the ocean of logistics facilities.

However, at the intersection of prisons and warehouses, not only land but also people are involved.

Prisons disproportionately house poor, non-white Californians – the same people warehouses disproportionately employ. Indeed, new warehouses are often a rare place to hire someone with a criminal record, and in recent years there has been a progressive attitude towards former criminals in line with the growing labor shortage.

However, warehouse employment has its dark side. Working in these establishments can be like a prison. Employees are closely watched and watched. They can be punished or fired for taking time off work, even going to the bathroom.

As a result, state lawmakers who have looked at the situation in prisons in recent years are wondering how to make warehouses look less like prisons.

Earlier this month, the California state legislature approved AB701, the country’s first bill to regulate warehouses. If the law is signed by the governor, the bill requires disclosure of work speed allowances and metrics based on algorithms that warehouses use to determine workers. Companies can no longer penalize workers for “vacation duties” that include breaks. The bill also empowers the state to pass new regulations to help injuries while working in these warehouses.

Lawmaker Lorena Gonzalez, who is sponsoring the bill, said she was particularly concerned about building an Amazon warehouse in Otai Mesa, east of the San Diego area. A warehouse similar to this facility shares Otay Mesa with the infamous Immigration Detention Center (which the ACLU is about to close) and Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, the county’s only state prison. from San Diego.

Back in Tracy, driving Grantline Road and trying to get into some warehouses to talk to the workers, the location was too well protected. Access to the closed prison was much easier. The old guardhouse where the visiting car was to stop was empty. And the front door of the prison itself was wide open, and the prisoners had already migrated. After touring the property, the Protection Observer helped staff get some computers up and running for reuse.

Standing there, it’s not hard to imagine that this former prison along I-5, and at least 11 other state-owned prisons at least half a century ago, have been converted to warehouses. low.

It’s even easier after a 25-minute drive to Stockton, a northern California women’s facility where the last state prison was closed in 2003. But I couldn’t find the site. The old address is in a distribution center and large multimodal transportation facility where freight moves from truck to rail vehicle (or vice versa) on the way from warehouse to warehouse.